Bulgaria Ski discussion board

This seasons races are Europa Cup slalom, not World Cup downhill (where is the smiley banging his head against the wall ???)
As the amount of preparation on 9A going on at the moment and the installation of a new cannon at its junction with black 9 (tomba) i can only guess that they might be using this slope for the events as its far more suitable for slalom (steeper !!) than tomba..
Last season the main event stand was removed the following day and part of the other stand, all the camera towers, speakers, promotion stands and marquees again the following day, the main tv screen remains at base of Tomba. Watered slopes will break up with pisteing as its only the top surface that freezes (note rutting on slalom and D/H courses), put it this way, you could ski on Tomba the day after the World Cup finished (going through the tapes ) but it was re-opened a couple days later..
Fortunately Ulen had prempted the need for roads and laid in new car park areas and access roads at Banderista Polyana the previous summer, clever fellas (and girlies i suppose ) They used fork lift trucks to shift stand sections, and yes, there were loads of people doing it
The 100 tonnes of `kit' remained in the car park for a few days and was picked up by articulated trucks...

Signman and Dave, correctomundo if you came in from side off red 6, top of black 9 under chair was taped off and unpisted.... and grrrrrrrreat !!!!! but basically proves it was open straight away.
The pistes will be open from the 4th to 11th of Jan, might be a bit busy as everyone now will be avoiding the races on 22nd-23rd because the whole mountain will be closed, people will be asked, no.... forced at gunpoint to lay face down in the street and form a walkway for visiting dignitries and members of our famous mafia to save them soiling their shoes on less than perfect snow. They will then be herded into the `Happy End' and will be expected to smile when paying 5lv for a beer
but only after they have moved at least 10 cubic mtrs of snow from the 3km long driveway of our mayors castle, from which he lords over us with a rod of iron, and a band of henchmen with AK47's....
Please......... will the pistes be open ????? of course they will, even when the races are on

Steve C, I know you sometimes feel agrevated with peoples questions on here, but people are genuinely concerned about spending a lot of money on a ski holiday and turning up to poor/closed facilities.

Myself & my wife ski holiday with another couple, and February 2010 will be our 4th year in a row returning to Bansko. As you can read from my post above we didnt have the best of experiences last year, and to top it off we had shelled out big bucks to stay at the Kempinski.

Dont get me wrong, the hotel lived up to all our expectations and more, but the ski facilities for the week we were there were very poor. I know Ulen can do nothing about high winds etc, but it did seem they were preoccupied with the world cup race.

I wonder was this why some runs were not pisted, and was it really high winds that closed the mountain top runs?

Getting back to Tomba opening the next day......Was the netting on the left side of Tomba taken down overnight? I watched it take over a week to put up this side netting and cannot imagine it took only a few hours to remove it?

People saying they skied through barriers, and saying there were no barriers doesnt give me any confidence. This is how accidents are caused, because as I said above heavy machinery must have been in place to remove certain items from the race run.

Unfortunately the jury is still out on the decision that Tomba opened up as soon as some people are making out. I cant see how it was possible to open as quick as ye are making out.

I was looking at the race again last night, and there was a lot of 'kit' to be removed, right down to the quite large cow on the beginners ground near the finish line. Even this must have taken half a day to pack up.

Any how, we are booked for February 6th and are hopeful of a better skiing experience this time.

Thanks for all your input!!!

Cheers

Charlie, totally except what you say and your misgivings. The netting at the side of the runs remained for most of the season, only the sponsors signs came down and the lower fences at the side of red 6. The taped areas referred to were to block the access to the race piste on the race days, these extended from as far up as the start hut all the way down to the junction of red 6 and black 9. These were either ignored or removed after the race was over. The stand that you refer to at the base of the nursury area was removed very quickly as it was causing inconvenience to the beginers area, the cow was inflatable and came down in minutes, and has been noted, there were loads of bodies to help in the removal of all equipment. They likely worked all night in order to open the nursury area the following day.
I also except that it was a pain for those who were skiing here over the world cup, the queueing alone was enough to put people off. This has been noted by Ulen (it was their first world cup). Better information regarding the free buses that were laid on, more intergration of paying skiers and VIP's...
If i am to be pushed on what annoys me, it is the referals constantly to `pistes closed', `mountain closed' which is absolute rubbish. For sure the race piste will be closed for obvious reasons, but the rest of the mountain ??? I have to agree about closing the top of the mountain because of high wind, that only effects the Todorka chairs, there are two pomas that could be used, but have to admit that at that time a snowboarder was killed in an avalanche off Todorka, now whether that effected the decision to open the top ?? i don't know, it was as annoying to us here who wanted to play in the powder. The only complaints i heard all season were from this week, mostly about the queueing, but take it from me, people including me were skiing Tomba right after the races (i'll say that i was 2 days after ) but the nursury slopes were open the day after definately. There were a lot of complaints, not just from Brits, these were noted, and hopefully will be considered the next world cup...